The invention relates generally to a method and system for providing the actual cost to the customer for utilization of a CPU farm, prior to that utilization.
In recent times, photo-realistic computer generated images have come to play a familiar role in commercial film and television productions. Production studios use sophisticated, compute-intensive software packages such as Maya™ from Alias Wavefront Corp., RenderMan™ from Pixar Corp., or Mental Ray™ from Mental Images, Inc. to create (or render) these images. Compute-intensive applications are characterized by their heavy use of a computer's central processing units. Depending on the complexity of a scene, a single frame can take up to several hours to render on conventional computer hardware. Since there are 1,800 frames in one minute of film (30 frames-per-second times 60), rendering time can quickly become impractical.
Faced with this dilemma, a production studio can either invest in additional computer hardware or outsource the rendering to a company (known as a “CPU farm”) that has ample computer resources. Because the hardware investment can be significant and because there is a need to keep computers free for normal operations, smaller production studios are turning to CPU farms for rendering. A CPU farm can include a single computer system, but typically farms employ large numbers of fast processors interconnected through high-speed networks. The farm processors can be physically at one location or can be geographically dispersed. By dividing the rendering task among a number of processors, the farm can render a sequence of frames in a fraction of the time that it would take a small production studio.
Currently, CPU farms do not have the ability to quote the actual cost of performing a rendering job. Instead, farms provide an estimated cost. For example, the Alternative Perspective Render Farm (www.ap3d.com) extrapolates the time required for rendering based on the rendering time of one or more exemplary frames chosen by the customer. The calculation is based on the speed of the production studio's computer, the time it takes to render the exemplary frames, and the number of farm processors hired. Another farm, The Diner, Inc. (www.dinerinc.com), bases its cost estimation on the number of frames to be rendered and the average rendering time per frame (also provided by the customer).
Typically, the actual cost is determined only after the farm has completed the rendering job. If the actual cost is greater than the estimated cost, the customer pays the difference. Without knowing the actual cost of rendering beforehand, customers may find it difficult to budget such expenditures.